With the news of so many tech companies choosing to lay off staff, it seems prudent to revisit how to defend against layoffs. The behavior is closely related to advocating for career advancement. When you demonstrate continued delivery of results, you demonstrate value to the organization.

It may seem like promotion and termination couldn't be further apart. In both cases, your trajectory is supported by clearly articulated value to the business. When you ask your boss for a promotion, she will need to make a pitch on why you deserve it to someone more senior in the org. Someone who understands less about your job and your value. Those same senior people often make layoff decisions.

The most critical aspect, in either case, is quantified value to the business. You can't just say "I managed this team." I see many leaders communicate their value to the organization as though someone knows their job and can interpret the impact. If you say "I created a quality program" or "I rearchitected a platform" you may run into a senior exec who thinks "so what?"

Consider your accomplishments in the context of the business goals. Communicate that you lead a team that built a product that generated $10m in revenue. Perhaps you optimized a product that reduced customer turnover by 5%. Or reduced expenses and expanded margin by $2 million a year.

Sometimes you may have to create a measurable proxy for the value you create. I had to improve the product release process for a suite of products that had a terrible reputation for disappointing customers and needing hot fixes. I created a release score based on user feedback and quality metrics, and demonstrated an improvement in the release score over 18 months.

As a manager, I would create “baseball cards” for each of my staff. I would add accomplishments each quarter. I framed the achievements with our business objectives. After 12-18 months it became an invaluable tool to argue for promotion. In the case of lean times like we see today in some tech quarters, these are ready-made defenses to argue for keeping the best of my team.

As a manager, you are responsible to coach your staff and advocate for their advancement. As an individual, be responsible for your value and results. Do not leave the quantifiable demonstration of this value to chance. Be prepared by preparing along the way. These same tools make year-end performance reviews (and self-reviews) much easier as well.